Chinese Journal of Entomology (1997) 17, 133-136

Wu-Xuan Qin and Tie-Sheng Lee (1997)
[Amino acid composition of the venoms of Polistes olivaceus and P. rothneyi grahami (Hymenoptera: Vespoidea)]
Chinese Journal of Entomology 17 (2), 133-136
Abstract: Social wasp venoms possess dazzling diversity and have great merit for medicinal use. In this experiment we measured the amino acid composition of the venoms of 2 important species of Chinese paper wasps, Polistes olivaceus and P. rothneyi grahami. Both species can be reared in the laboratory. Venoms of these wasps were collected by electric stimuli. The results show that the amino acid components comprised 28.6% and 50.9% of the venoms of P. olivaceus and P. rothneyi grahami, respectively, suggesting that nonproteinaceous activities are involved. The proportion of acidic amino acids to alkaline amino acids in P. rothneyi grahami venom is 0.42, which is consistent with the fact that many active components of insect venoms are alkaline proteins or peptides. Although these 2 species belong to the same family of Polistidae, amino acid composition of their venoms differs, suggesting that the biochemical components of the venoms from the 2 wasps may be greatly different from each other.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
(original language: Chinese)

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
Polistes (genus - predators)